Presently, there are four fundamental forces that govern the universe: gravity, weak nuclear, electromagnetism, and strong nuclear. These forces cause the Moon to orbit the Earth, allow atomic nuclei to decay, create stable atoms, and the bind protons and neutrons. A dream of Physicists is to find a single equation that unifies these forces into a Theory of Everything. From this one equation, all of science can be derived. The grand unification of the forces is predicted to be the state of the universe just after the Big Bang.
The scientific method is a guiding principle of modern physical sciences. In a sentence or two, it is formulating a hypothesis (the theory), making a prediction, testing with observation or an experiment (experimentation). It is a cyclic process where experimentation leads to a refining of the theory or perhaps effects that are totally unexpected or have never been observed which leads to new predictions which lead to new experiments, and so on.
The question: if a Theory of Everything is proven experimentally, is that the end to the scientific method and in turn science as a field of study?
Winner: Just Another Theory by Matthew Dela Cruz, Monsignor Scanlan High School, The Bronx, NY
Honorable Mention: Going Beyond the Theory of Everything by David Zulewski, St. Joseph's Collegiate Institute, Buffalo, NY